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Philip Hammond has announced a £400 million fund for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure projects across the UK.

As part of his 2017 Budget announcement, the Chancellor also pledged to invest an extra £100 million to help people buy EVs and £40 million will go towards charging research and development.

He believes there is “perhaps no technology as symbolic as the revolution gathering pace around us as driverless vehicles”.

He said: “Our future vehicles will be driverless but they’ll be electric first and that’s a change that needs to come as soon as possible for our planet.

“I can confirm today that we will clarify the law so that people who charge their electric vehicles at work will not face a benefit-in-kind charge from next year.”

The government has also committed to electrify 25% of cars in central government department fleets by 2022.

It hopes to see fully self-driving cars on UK roads by 2021 and will therefore make “world leading” changes to the regulatory framework, such as setting out how driverless cars can be tested without a human safety operator.

The National Infrastructure Commission is to launch a new innovation prize to determine how future roadbuilding should adapt to support self-driving cars.